Welcome to Sustainable Fisheries

"The European Commission has issued a yellow card against Thailand as a potential
non-cooperating third country in the fight against IUU fishing. This follows
discussions held since 2011. It is taking action against Thailand for the
alleged breaches of international commitments against IUU fishing. The EU
considers that Thailand has significant shortcomings in its fisheries
monitoring, control and sanctioning systems and concludes that it is not doing
enough to address them. The Commission has identified that at least 11 Thai
vessels have been involved in IUU activities during the period 2010 to 2014; the
fact that many Thai vessels are not carrying VMS onboard in breach of IOTC
rules, lack of traceability for imported fishery products, and inconsistencies
in the catch certificates issued by the Thai authorities (for example with final
products found to be up to twice the amount of raw material) and product
consigned from vessels not registered with RFMOs. Thailand had also failed to
cooperate effectively with other states; the Department of Fisheries was unaware
that 5 Thai vessels were arrested for fishing illegally in the PNG EEZ in
October 2014."

In a Telegram article by Ashley Fitzpatrick entitled “Province Releases Aquaculture Strategy “ the new Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Vaughn Granter, makes the claim that aquaculture is “a real success for rural Newfoundland and Labrador”. Similarly, Cyr Couturier, President of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association spins the same message of success and adds that “ the investment is very small compared to what the returns have been. It’s demonstrable”.

The problem with both statements is their claims are not “demonstrable”. We are left wondering what criteria Minister Granter used in concluding that aquaculture has been a “success”. Did he take into consideration the following:

The recent report by DFO indicating further declines in shrimp are imminent are raising concerns about the need to change the Last In First Out policy of DFO.

Keith Sullivan, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union (FFAW), objects to generalized, grey-cloud talk of “issues” in the industry, but he has joined representatives from all parties in the province’s House of Assembly in speaking out publicly on a specific issue tied to shrimp quota cuts.

All have objected to a federal policy that will, they say, see inshore fishermen shouldering the bulk of cuts, in comparison to the offshore fleet.

The Last In, First Out (LIFO) policy dictates any quota cuts are first put to inshore fishermen as opposed to the offshore fleet. The reason given is that inshore fishermen experienced greater increases in their quotas compared to the offshore fleet from the late 1990s to today, to the tune of a 90 per cent versus 10 per cent share, although that value is disputed by provincial representatives, who say the windfall for the inshore was not across the board.